


Eternity

by fiddleogold_againstyoursoul



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-11 12:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4435169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiddleogold_againstyoursoul/pseuds/fiddleogold_againstyoursoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You have to be careful with the word 'forever'. Nothing lasts forever. Not even love.<br/>But maybe, not having 'forever' will make 'a while' all the more sweet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eternity

It was a word Midorima Shintarou rarely if ever used, a word that he treated like taboo. 'Forever'. 

Nothing lasted forever. Not the wedding between his parents which he'd never known to have troubles, not the home he'd had for so many years of his life that was snatched away from him in an instant. 

'I'll love you forever and ever,' was a sentence that, needless to say, Midorima laughed over. 

What was love?

Blind eyed affection? Liberty to take control of the other? It definitely wasn't something that was strong enough to last forever. 

If love was ceramic, made to be broken, Midorima's heart was wrapped in unpoppable bubble wrap. 

He didn't think it unfair, how 'forever' wasn't as simple as saying the word. It was providential. It was necessary. If no one died, fought or broke up, Earth would be paradise. 

'Temporary' was a word he did believe in. Because nothing was forever, not even his beloved constellations that spelled out his luck for him. They too could die, fade to dimness. They could be wiped out. 

Takao was different. 

Takao was an entity of his own, bending things to his will with sweet words and laughing at his misfortunes. 

Takao was fragile. He too was temporary. 

But he was what Midorima chose.

Was it ironic? How he favoured Takao, the most temporary thing in reach, when he always longed for 'forever'? Perhaps it was. But he knew, had known since Takao had first reached out to take his hand and whisper in his ear a mirthful confession that had made Midorima's face light up all possible shades of red, that he irrevocably was slave to the heart that pined after Takao Kazunari. 

''Shin-chan, Shin-chan'' was a effervescent nickname Midorima hoped to never miss. He loved how Takao let his name fall from his lips like it was the purest, most golden of honey, like it was a shard of a precious stone. He loved how with one touch, Takao could make him feel like the luckiest person in the world, which said a lot when you considered Midorima was a stickler for luck and believed it beheld only the most worthy. 

It was dangerous how happy Takao could make him. It was always tempting fate to be too happy. Midorima knew this, yet never really stopped enjoying the time he got to spend with Takao, or got angry at the man for making him smile after a particularly long day. Takao was like a drug, and Midorima was his addict. It scared him sometimes, how high he held Takao in regard. How he wouldn't think twice but jump into a sea to at least have a shot at saving him. 

And Takao was so open about their relationship. He wore their promise ring regardless of occasion or simple outing, clutching Midorima protectively as if the moment he let go, Midorima would fall in love with another Takao Kazunari or be abducted by aliens(which he swore were real). He sent such affectionate messages that they gave Midorima's heart wings, fluttering them palpably, feverishly. One day Midorima's heart would simply fly out of his ribcage and soar through the heavens, and no one would be the wiser that he'd have his lawyers sue a certain Takao Kazunari's cell service company for permitting the individual to send such a cute text. 

''I love you,'' Takao would whisper some nights when they were tangled in a heap, on the sofa or out on open ground...how strange it was to have someone you love lying by you and feeling their heart beat in synchronisation with yours, how warm their body was pressed to your own...and he'd lovingly tousle Midorima's green hair, or playfully pull off his glasses, of course enticing a very Tsundere-like acerbic retort. He didn't treat the word 'forever' with as much distant respect as Midorima did, but acknowledged his sensitivity for it and seldom let it pass his lips, replacing it with,''...for a while yet.'' 

And Midorima was strangely content with that. 'For a while yet' wasn't as meaningful as 'for eternity' or 'till death do us part'. It meant an hour, two hour, a week. Two weeks was enough for Midorima to know he had Takao's love before it expired again and Takao would throw him a coquettish look from under sooty black eyelashes, mouthing a term of endearment and pecking him on the side of his face. He was selfish for Takao, but he was scared he was too possessive of him. 

Midorima couldn't tell Takao that. He couldn't say things like ''You will have my heart forever'' because his heart wouldn't last forever. One day it would stop. One day it would break down. One day it would die with him, and he wouldn't want Takao to mourn him then, anyway. Because he didn't deserve Takao's tears, silver droplets that spilled out of eyes a tempest grey and dripped from his chin so adorably, like a wounded puppy. Not him. That wouldn't be right. 

He hadn't been prepared to fall in love. Then again, he hadn't been prepared all the dozens of times Takao Kazunari showed him what bounds his heart could take for his love either. Takao was an exception, an exception to everything...and nothing. Takao was mortal. Takao could fade, he could simply walk out of Midorima's life. He was like one butterfly in a meadowful, but the thing was, he was Midorima's silver butterfly. Not anyone else's. 

Midorima was always happy when his partner's breaths died to a soft snore and he felt him relax against his large frame, rubbing his head against Midorima's chest. Maybe it was because he could say all the things he couldn't have face to face, in the daytime. Things like 'I love you' and 'I'm all yours' and occasionally 'gosh darn you're beautiful but could you remove your elbow from where it's stuck in my armpit'. Other things like 'Takao get this stuffed animal out of my face' and 'gargh blegh chelft' when Takao's Kuma-plush smothered his face. Things like that, however temporary they were, they were beautiful while they lasted, like a shooting star. Even that bastard of a bear plushie that insisted on hogging a big portion of their two-person bed. Well. Maybe not that. 

''I want to say things like that, you know,'' He'd bitterly think when his arm was around Takao and they were watching some chick flick Takao had jumped up and down insisting they watch, and the boy was reciting some sappy love lines like out of Shakespeare to the girl. Of course he'd scrunch up his nose when they documented how far the tongue got in some kiss scenes, but he wished he could offer Takao the same novelty of having passion like that. He wished he could. Really, he did. 

Midorima wished that one day he would wake up and he would find himself dead. He would not be able to breathe, or hear his heart beat, but there'd at least be confirmation of something he would never dare to say other wise. He'd like to go up to the grieving Takao and place a hand on his head, as if comforting the man who he never wished to hurt by his passing. He'd tell the man how much he loved him and how happy he was... 

''I'll love you...'' 

''...for eternity.''

And this time, he'd mean it, for whose word could you trust but a dead man's?

**Author's Note:**

> THANKS FOR SITTING THROUGH THIS   
> I swear, trial exams are more of an ordeal than the real thing.  
> I think I like actual exams, but I hate cramming my head full of formulae I won't remember after my school years.  
> *跳进被窝里*


End file.
